Solving 5 Common Problems with Traditional Phone Systems

Obsolete Hardware and Support

As with most technology, phone system hardware becomes obsolete quickly as newer, more cutting edge devices become available. Repairing legacy systems becomes difficult as parts are only available aftermarket and the cost of repairing and maintaining them eventually becomes overwhelming. Support costs also rise as the technicians and engineers retrain or retire. With heightened security risks, increasing demands from customers to communicate with businesses right away, and the need to improve productivity, the model of limited voice capability is quickly becoming a thing of the past.

A recent survey by Hanover Research found that despite the rise of email, video and social media, 74 percent of small and midsized businesses (SMBs) still rely on voice communication and rated it as extremely or very important to their business operations. Unfortunately, a majority of businesses are continuing to maintain a traditional PSTN phone system at high cost. In doing so, organizations may be hobbling their business potential.

When you rely on your business phone system for everyday use and connectivity with your customers, the safest move is to invest in a phone system that is simple to maintain, scalable, feature-filled and cost efficient. An option that is becoming more popular every day is VoIP communications.

It's important to first understand your business needs and your network infrastructure. What functionality does your business require, and what would be some nice-to-have features? Do you need an on-premises system or is a hosted solution a better fit? Once you cover your basic needs, you'll discover the advanced features and functionality a VoIP solution can offer that a traditional phone system would have never been able to compete with.

In this slideshow, Digium outlines five problems your traditional phone system will eventually experience, and how VoIP can solve each one.